LE Audio and the Future of Hearing

Here’s a interview with Scott Davis, president at GN on LE audio- Auracast hyping up the Nexia as well. He slams classic bluetooth latency (Phonak looking at you) issues as well

How Auracast™ Broadcast Audio Will Help Those With Hearing LossAuracast™...22

For decades, GN has leveraged their intelligent hearing, audio, video, and gaming solutions to bring people closer together. Delivering technology that can enhance hearing and sight…

Unfortunately, Davis gives no explanation of why the One and the Omnia cannot be upgraded to some form of BT LE Audio, maybe without the Auracast capability but still having the direct streaming (LC3) from a single source.

When these HA models came out, ReSound advertised buying them was a “future-proof” choice. So much for that claim…

Would be interesting to see what kind of response GN would give if you brought that up in a letter. It seems like they’d be wide open to a class action law suit.

@jim_lewis said:

When these HA models came out, ReSound advertised buying them was a “future-proof” choice. So much for that claim…

Relative to “future-proof” and BT LE Audio, very curious that the ReSound One is no longer listed on the U.S. version of the ReSound Pro website, but the Quattro still is. Perhaps it’s related to pricing/technology levels (and MARKETING!!!) and there just wasn’t room for the One to continue to fit into the scheme of things (the Omnia is basically just the One with better front beam-forming technology).

Hearing aids ReSound - Hearing aids

Same for the consumer version of the same ReSound U.S. site - either under the main page or Support Materials you have to go to “Other ReSound Hearing Aids” to see the ReSound One listed! The big deal with the One supposedly was the introduction of M&RIE receivers but perhaps ReSound is downplaying that and the Ones these days…

Hearing Aids Support | ReSound US1

Don’t mean to hijack this thread, but my post is about what ReSound seemed to promise but didn’t deliver on the way to BT LE Audio. ReSound One - the future-proof hearing aid that’s not really making it into the future …

@MDB said:

My Samsung S23 just updated to Android 14. According to NRF Connect, LE Audio Broadcast Assistant is now supported.

Congrats!

@MDB said:

LE Audio Broadcast Source is still not supported.

But Sink is? I think that’s what you need the most.

Sink isn’t mentioned in the NRF Connect app.

can someone explain this audio LE blutooth will work with all laptop / mobile like old office laptops and andriod mobile??

I have been using the android 14 beta on my Samsung Galaxy S23 for a couple of months. My phone hasn’t gotten the android 14 full update yet.

Here’s a link: Samsung Galaxy S23 5G US Unlocked (SM-S911U1) Full Specifications - Tsar30005
It’s a SM-S911U1 I use T-Mobile for my provider.

@MDB said:

My Samsung S23 just updated to Android 14. According to NRF Connect, LE Audio Broadcast Assistant is now supported. (It wasn’t earlier) LE Audio Broadcast Source is still not supported. I do not know implications of that but it sounds like progress in implementation of LE Audio

What the Assistant role means is that you’ll be able to scan for broadcasts (Auracast streams) on the phone and when you select one, the phone will relay the stream synchronization information over to a connected Broadcast sink (earbud, hearing aid) and from thereon, the sink will synchronize directly to the broadcast source and start streaming the audio.

Without the Assistant role, there’s no (easy) way for the audio sink to get the information needed to synchronize to the broadcast audio stream.

Phones are just one example of a Broadcast Assistant device. There will probably be different types of devices that come out on the market that will be built primarily to act as an assistant.

@mafaneh said:

Sink is usually a role the earbuds/hearing aids will take, not the phone.

If phones could play the sink role, every phone with a wired headset would instantly become an access device for BT broadcasts. Would move things along a bit.

@ds63tgtpep said:

You’re right - probably not the most needed feature in the phone, but I could imagine the situation where you wanted to record a broadcast.

Yeah, that’s a good example of a valid use case!

I’ve been following Bluetooth LE thread for sometime thinking it will be important for me, but after looking at the recent reviews posted I am not so sure. I have Oticon More 2, and stream from iPhone and laptop (MacBook Air.)

With the latest OSX (Sonoma) they finally enabled MFi for the Mac so I immediately tossed my (Routinely failing) Connect Clip and am happily streaming from both phone and laptop - with one issue, you have to choose which device and actively disable bluetooth on the other (ie, when streaming the laptop I have to disable bluetooth on the phone.)

Will LE fix this issue?? It clearly enables transmission to multiple devices, but I have not been able to find anything that indicates a receiver can connect to multiple streams.

For myself (Mild to moderate harming loss with typical ski-slope) I am not thinking I will need the public broadcast transmission, and at this time do not need it for TV.

Improved audio quality (From the new codec) might be a good thing for me, but really MFi would be fine if I didn’t need to actively manage bluetooth sources.